Louis- Hector BerliozA French Romantic Composer 1803-

1869Created by: Valerie Quintana

Biography

• Born• Family• Early Life

Biography

• Early studies• Shakespeare • Harriet Smithson 1833

Biography

• Most Famous Work “Symphonie Fantastique”• Married in 1833• Niccolo Paganini – “Harold en Italy”• “Grande Messe Des Morts” -1837• “Romeo et Juliette”- 1839

Biography

• A son is born in 1834• Tragic Marriage• “La damnation de Faust”- a failure in Paris• “Te Duem” -1849• “L’enfance Du Christ” 1854• “Les Troyens” -1856• “Beatrice et Benedict”-1862

Biography

• Sons death• Died -1869

Composition History

“Symphonie Fantasique”

Movement 1

Movement 2

Composition History

Movement 3

Movement 4

Composition History

Movement 5

Aftermath

“With Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz stepped into his artistic maturity. The lovesick teenager had become the Artist who had won the heart of his fixation.”

Listening Guide- Symphonic Fantasique• 0:00 Introduction- Slow tempo of longing.

Melody is carried by the violins and the flute. Introduces the fixed idea theme of the protagonist. Form of a sonata style.

 

• 0:33- The tempo then describes the lovesick protagonist heartache and despair.

• 0:40- The rhythm changes to a sad and uneasy feeling.

 

  1:45- The rhythm changes and the music gets livelier with the strings. Like for the protagonist is madly in love and then feeling so much at once to the point where it gets out of hand.  

Listening Guide

• 2:58- the music has many mixed textures of the moods and visions of the protagonist. This is the part that is said where the protagonist is intoxicated with the opium.

• 5:22- The orchestra burst for the protagonist is remembering the moment he first saw his beloved. Allegro

 

Listening Guide

• 6:46- The theme move away from the C major to a G major. It’s not a new them just an add on.

• 8:38- The strings darken the harmony of the Idee Fixe ascending. The woodwinds form a sigh like fall.

8:45- the timber changes for the raging feelings of the protagonist.

 9:00 Pulsing theme of the strings with rising

phrases. Recapitulation 9:52 Strings pulse like a heartbeat. Eight note

phrases, repeated and ascending again becoming more passionate.

 

Listening Guide

11:30- it turn to a dark texture and grows darker.

 11:50 the oboes create and errie feeling of

their version of the Idee Fixe, it gets more nervous and then dies away.

12:10- the flute to does the yearning but then dies.

 12:25- The flute ascends towards a climactic

version of the Idee Fixe.  

14:50 the ending has a religious mood to it. 15:31- A defeated end

Listening Guide

• The Second Movement- A Ball•  • 0:00- the melody give an

excitement for what’s about to happen with the lower strings, bass and cellos.

• 1:10 the flute and the clarinet begin to ascend.

• 1:17- the descending of the strings.• 2:00- The rhythm descends as to where

the protagonist sees his beloved among the people.

Listening Guide

• 2:10 the Idee Fixe from the first movement is played four times combined with the waltz music.

• 2:50- the flute and the clarinet play together• 3:00- is a rhythm of panic of the protagonist

• 3:18 harps enter, but the main melody is in the violins, violas and cellos.

• 3:28- the texture becomes more of a richly sounding orchestra.

Listening Guide

• 4:30 the melody becomes livelier with the strings.• 4:50 the music builds a texture of joy.• 5:40- the waltz burst that the protagonist has come back to reality.• 6:00- texture creates the feeling of the room and the rush of feelings of the protagonist

alone with the crowd for he has lost sight of his beloved among the crowd.

Work Cited:

• http://www.geneall.net/U/img_people.php?show=h• http://www.classical.net/music/books/fiction.php• http://

dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/furness/image.html?id=FURNESS_ft_pbe800_1_s• http://www.rugusavay.com/hector-berlioz-quotes/• http://www.musicwithease.com/berlioz-pictures.html• http://

www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/09/forgotten-berlioz-romeo-et-juliette